Food processors are known for mechanically processing food stuffs. The mechanical processing of a food stuff includes the operation of slicing, chopping, cutting, dicing, crushing or grating. A food processor is disclosed in United States patent application no. US20100154658A. Such a food processor has a base unit in which a drive unit is disposed, a container for receiving a mechanically processed food stuff, a food processing tool unit for mechanically processing a food stuff and a lid. An inlet aperture is formed in the lid to allow a food stuff to be fed to the food processing tool unit.
In use, the container is disposed on the base unit and the tool unit is disposed in the upper end of the container. A drive shaft is engaged with the drive unit and upstands in the container to connect the drive unit to the food processing tool unit. The lid is placed over the container to enclose the container and the food processing tool unit. The drive unit is operated at a low speed and with a high torque to allow effective mechanical processing of a food stuff, which is fed towards the food processing tool unit through the inlet aperture in the lid to the food processing tool unit. The food stuff is then mechanically processed by the food processing tool unit before falling into the lower part of the container. For example, if a dicing tool is used as the food processing tool unit, then a food stuff fed to the dicing unit is sliced into cubes.
Another food processor arrangement uses a hand blender as the drive unit. With such a food processor, the hand blender is mounted to the base unit and a gear mechanism is disposed in the base unit which connects the hand blender to the drive shaft. Therefore, the food processing tool unit is driven when the hand blender is operated. The hand blender operates at a high speed and low torque, and so the gear mechanism acts to transmit the rotational motion of the hand blender, whilst reducing the transmitted speed and increasing the torque.
However, one problem with the above food processors is that the lid is easily removed from the container, and/or it is possible to operate the food processor without the lid in place. Therefore, it is possible for a user to easily insert a body part, or another instrument, into the food processing tool unit during use, which may cause injury to the user, or damage to the food processor. Furthermore, the above-described food processors are bulky and space-consuming.